The Order of the White Moon Goddess Gallery Presents Columbia A Level 3 Final Project for the Sisters of the Rising Moon School by Literata Level 3 Priestess and Member of the Order of the White Moon (ï¿½ 2011. All original material in this site is under copyright protection and is the intellectual property of the author.) Columbia is both a very young goddess and a very old one. Ancient Romans worshipped Libertas , Goddess of Liberty, among many other virtues personified. Our own Statue of Liberty , actually entitled Liberty Enlightening the World, is directly modeled on classical depictions of Libertas. Another representation of American ideals is the statue which stands atop the dome of the Capitol, entitled Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace, often called simply Freedom. I am joining a growing number of American Pagans who see all these manifestations as aspects of a single goddess called Columbia, who is the embodied spirit of America and a representation of our highest ideals of freedom. Female personifications of countries are common: the UK was often represented as Brittannia , France as Marianne , and Switzerland as Helvetia . At about the same time, depictions of America personified began to be called Columbia .

The statue of Freedom atop the dome of the Capitol combines symbols of traditional depictions of Libertas, such as the classically draped gown, and of America, in the form of her crest of eagle feathers. Because of this combination, I see this statue as one of the best depictions of Columbia. This statue has an interesting past which reminds us of the journey our country has made, sometimes in fits and starts, towards honoring its highest ideals in practice by recognizing and protecting more freedoms. Columbia, after all, takes her name from Christopher Columbus, whose explorations enabled the European occupation of the Americas, with tremendous losses of life and freedom for Native Americans that would continue for centuries. The inclusion of Native American elements such as her fringed blanket and the eagle should represent rather than erase this problematic past. The eagle-topped helmet was actually a substitution; the sculptorï¿½s original design had the figure wearing a pileus , or Liberty cap, which symbolized freedom because it had been worn by freed slaves in Rome. It became part of Libertasï¿½ imagery, and can still be found in American iconography today, either held by Liberty or by itself, including in the seal of the Senate and on some state flags.

When Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, reviewed the design, he insisted that the symbol of freed slaves was inappropriate for the United States. Although he prevailed on the sculptor to change the design, the issue of slavery led to war less than ten years later. Davis and the Confederacy he led were defeated. As a result, when slavery was abolished, some of the newly-free people were ones who worked to create and install the statue. Perhaps the least obvious irony embodied in Columbiaï¿½s statue is the very fact that she is a female symbol of a country where even a hundred years ago women could not vote. She carries a sword and shield, the armament of an infantry soldier, when women in our armed forces are not allowed to be infantry members, even though they play an increasing role in direct combat. From her first appearances to the present day, Columbia, goddess of freedom and liberty as American values, has symbolized ideals that we have only imperfectly lived out. To me, worshipping Columbia is both a continuation of the ancient veneration of Libertas and a way of acknowledging the new forms that goddess takes.

America's Bill of Rights, including freedom of religion, was revolutionary for its time, and although our progress towards respecting those rights in practice as well as theory has been slow and irregular, progress has been made and continues to advance. Thus, this new persona of an ancient goddess continues to call me to move forward by supporting and protecting rights for all people. With this mythology and history in mind, Columbia's symbols include the pileus, the eagle and eagle feathers, the sheathed sword and shield which represent her protection, and the laurel wreath of peace. Pagan leader Isaac Bonewits also worshipped Freedom/Liberty as a goddess. When the statue from the Capitol was brought down to ground level for cleaning and restoration, he led a group in consecrating it. His ritual for that and other magical resources are in his Liberty Rite Materials . Selena Fox, founder of the Lady Liberty League which works to protect Pagan civil rights, also wrote about connections between Libertas and Lady Liberty . Greek Reconstructionist Pagans similarly venerate Columbia, celebrating the 4th of July as her feast day.

They pray to her and give her offerings of materials native to the Americas, such as corn, tobacco, sage, and tomatoes, and pour libations of American wines. On Independence Day in particular, I would dedicate a couple of fireworks to her honor! To read more about another DC Witch's workings with Columbia, see Hecate's posts, Conversations with Columbia, Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , and Part 5 . NB: Please note that some of this material was partially adapted from an article about Columbia I wrote for the Hail Columbia project. The plaster cast from which the statue of Columbia was made is now on exhibit in the US Capitol Visitors' Center. (Image in the public domain) Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol dome in Washington, District of Columbia (Image provided under GNU Free Documentation License ) Ritual to Columbia Note: This ritual is specifically US-related, as Columbia is an American goddess. If you are in another country, you can do the ritual as it is written to send energy to support your sisters in the US, or you can change it to address a more general goddess such as Libertas, or a more local one like the Goddess of Democracy in China.

Materials needed: an image of Columbia, such as a printout of an image online one white candle for freedom, and one black candle for protection Suggestions: If you like, decorate your altar with symbols of freedom, with patriotic symbols or colors to encourage your government to protect religious liberty, or with symbols of protection, such as a shield or mirror. Burn incense such as sage, juniper, or pine, and use black and white stones like clear or smoky quartz, snowflake obsidian, hematite, or jet. Cast the circle and invite the Elements as you usually do. Light the white candle and place it to the right of the image of Columbia. Reflect on and give thanks for the freedom you have to worship the Goddess in her many forms. Say: Hail Columbia, patron goddess of your district and of our government! You represent our highest ideals of freedom and liberty. Help us to strive towards the fullest expression of those values. Light the black candle from the white one and place it to the left of Columbia's image. Visualize Columbia on top of a solid wall, or a dome of protection that surrounds the Capitol and even all of DC.

You can imagine this as something that neutralizes and grounds any negative intent directed at it, or as something that reflects it away. Say: Columbia, stand firm to defend the wall of separation between church and state that protects our precious religious liberty, so that we may continue to honor you. As we do, help us resist oppression and ensure justice. Thank the Elements, open the circle, and let the candles burn out safely. U.S. Senate: Justice and History Justice and History by Thomas Crawford (1813/1814 - 1857) Marble, Modeled 1855 - 1856, Carved ca. 1858 - 1860 Overall measurement Height: 46 inches (116.8 cm) Width: 134 inches (340.4 cm) Depth: 26 inches (66 cm) Unsigned When the Capitol building was transformed by the grand architectural extension and new dome designed by Thomas U. Walter in the 1850s, only Constantino Brumidi was awarded more important commissions for its decoration than Thomas Crawford.

Crawford was contracted to provide an enormous amount of sculpture for the building: bronze doors for the eastern entrances to the House and Senate wings, the marble pediment sculpture for the Senate wing and a statuary group for the main Senate entrance, and, ultimately, the pinnacle of the entire Capitol, the bronze Statue of Freedom atop the dome. (For his many contributions to the Capitol, Crawford is memorialized with a bust, displayed in the Senate wing.) Crawford had been apprenticed to a wood carver at the age of 14. By about 1832, he was employed by the prominent New York stone-cutting firm operated by John Frazee and Robert Launitz. There he was assigned the customary work on gravestones and mantelpieces and assisted in the execution of portrait busts. Crawford also enhanced his artistic development by sketching casts from the collection of the National Academy of Design. In 1835 he moved to Rome and became the first American sculptor to settle there permanently. Once in Rome, he gravitated quickly to the studio of Bertel Thorvaldsen, perhaps the most famous sculptor of his day.

Thorvaldsen’s neoclassicism was the most important influence on Crawford. In 1839 Crawford gained widespread acclaim for his statue Orpheus, which led to numerous commissions for allegorical and mythological figures. While construction of the Capitol extension was still under way, Montgomery Meigs, superintendent of the Capitol extension, was busily attending to the decorative commissions as well. In August 1853 he wrote to Crawford in Florence, principally about the pediment and doorway on the east front of the new Senate. “I do not see why,” he claimed, “a Republic so much richer than the Athenian should not rival the Parthenon in the front of its first public edifice.” Crawford responded at the end of October, describing his ideas for the pediment and for the two allegorical figures over the doorway–-Justice and Liberty–-and concluding, “My price for the whole of them is $20,000.” The offer was approved by Jefferson Davis, secretary of war, and accepted by Meigs in a letter of November 30, 1853.

In the initial design, Liberty wore a pileus, the cap worn by freed slaves in ancient Rome, and Justice held a bundle of rods and an ax, Roman symbols of authority. Jefferson Davis was satisfied with the overall design, but he objected to the symbolic Roman elements, which he felt were inappropriate iconography for America. Both Meigs and Davis asked Crawford to change some of the details but to maintain the basic composition. Crawford agreed. “I have changed the Liberty into a figure of History (and thus avid [sic] the 'cap’),” he responded to Meigs. In July 1860, Crawford was paid the agreed-upon price of $3,000 for “modelling in plaster and cutting in marble Statues of 'Justice and History’ including marble.” Of all the sculptural projects awarded to Crawford for the new extension, Justice and History seems to have been almost an afterthought. First conceived (by Meigs) as a relief sculpture, it became not only the subject of disagreement over the symbolic attributes but also part of an ongoing gentlemanly controversy over whether it and the other sculptures should be carved (or, if bronze, cast) in Europe or America.

In addition, it was continuously postponed in favor of larger, clearly more significant projects. The planned placement of the figures was not very advantageous. Perched on a cap supported by massive brackets above the bronze door of the Senate wing, east portico, with their heads overlapping the windowsill behind them, they lacked a proper stage. Their back-to-back reclining position suggested a placement within a small tympanum, but no such framing element was provided. Allegorical figures were certainly not new in American sculpture, and neoclassicism was the favored “high” style among academically trained European and American sculptors. For many viewers, the classical style embodied a rigorous intellectual and moral integrity that suited the ideals of the new republic. But there was in the young country only a small, classically educated audience for the allegorical content. If simple enough, it was acceptable, but sometimes allegory failed, as with the notoriously negative public reaction to Horatio Greenough’s colossal half-nude statue of George Washington, which prompted Meigs to caution Crawford in a 1853 letter: Permit me to say that the sculpture sent here by our artists is not altogether adapted to the taste of our people.

We are not able to appreciate too refined and intricate allegorical representations, and while the naked Washington of Greenough is the theme of admiration to the few scholars, it is unsparingly denounced by the less refined multitude. Cannot sculpture be so designed as to please both? In this would be the triumph of the artist whose works should appeal not to a class but to mankind. Clearly this is not a condescending attitude, for Meigs was determined that the Capitol and its decoration should be admired by the “less refined multitude.” He gave Constantino Brumidi the painter more leeway in the matter of allegory than he was willing to allow Crawford the sculptor, perhaps because sculpture principally adorned the exterior of the building and thus was seen by more people. It was the large, multi-figure pediment that most preoccupied both Meigs and Crawford in this discussion, and Crawford proved quite amenable to satisfying Meigs’s concerns: “I fully agree with you regarding the necessity of producing a work intelligible to our entire population. The darkness of allegory must give place to common sense.” [1] What applied to the pediment applied as well to Justice and History.

The simplified allegories of book, globe, scales, and scroll, certainly, were clear to the multitude and easily appreciated. The completion of Justice and History was long delayed. A year after the contract was concluded, Crawford had done no more than send sketches to Washington, and on December 13, 1854, he asked Meigs’s permission to postpone modeling them until the dimensions of the doorway had been firmly decided. On June 10, 1855, he wrote that he would “immediately proceed with the group.” By November, the figures were apparently in process, though not complete, and on May 21, 1856, he reported to Meigs that the models were entirely finished. Now he was awaiting approval or rejection of his request to have them carved in marble in Italy, where he could supervise the production. In a subsequent letter to Meigs, Crawford complained of a problem with his left eye. This illness, a tumor, rapidly worsened, and over the next months, although he was able to do some finishing work on his colossal model of Freedom for the Capitol dome, it was apparent that Crawford’s ability to sculpt was seriously affected.

A letter of April 1, 1857, from the ailing artist to Meigs, asked for an advance in order to buy the marble to carve the figures. Meigs, who “had supposed from [Crawford’s] former letters that they were underway,” nonetheless agreed to make the funds available. [2] By then the cancer had spread to Crawford’s brain and, despite medical treatment in Paris and London, he died on October 10, 1857. Neither Justice nor History had been carved. Crawford had always urged Meigs to allow the carving of his marbles and the casting of his bronzes to be done in Rome. Meigs, on the other hand, had wanted them to be executed in the United States, to give native carvers and casters much-needed experience. Meigs prevailed for all of Crawford’s works but Justice and History. Crawford’s widow, Louisa Crawford, who took over her husband’s business affairs after his death, asked Meigs to allow Justice and History to be carved from Carrara marble in Italy, in part because “there are no duplicates cast, and . . .

if lost they are irretrievably gone.” Meigs relented, and the marbles were made in Italy between 1858 and 1860. The two pieces were shipped to the United States in 1860 and installed three years later above the Senate entrance on the east front of the Capitol. Meigs’s acquiescence on the carving location proved unfortunate, for of Crawford’s marble sculptures at the Capitol, only Justice and History deteriorated severely, eroded by the elements. By the mid-20th century, the head of History and the face of Justice were nearly gone, and the figures were severely flaked and cracked. In 1974 they were removed and heavily restored; Francesco Tonelli of the Vermont Marble Company carved copies of the originals. Tonelli’s marble reproductions were installed in the original location above the Senate doorway, and the repaired Justice and History was placed on display inside the Capitol. 1. Charles E. Fairman, Art and Artists of the Capitol of the United States of America (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1927), 143. 2. Robert L.

Gale, Thomas Crawford: American Sculptor (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964), 183. More on Justice and History In September 1850 Congress appropriated $100,000 for expansion of the United States Capitol. Philadelphia architect Thomas U. Walter was selected to design and construct the addition. In 1853 the project was transferred to the Army Corps of Engineers under the direction of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. While Walter remained as architect, Montgomery C. Meigs, a 36-year-old captain in the Corps of Engineers, was named superintendent of the Capitol extension and placed in charge of the construction. Meigs believed that the extension should be decorated in a highly elaborate style to rival the great buildings of Europe, and he and Davis worked together to make the Capitol a showcase of the arts. As part of that effort, Meigs asked artists Hiram Powers and Thomas Crawford to submit designs for sculpture for the new pediments planned for the Senate and House extensions and for the areas above the adjoining doorways. Crawford submitted a series of designs for the projects. For the Senate doorway, he proposed a grouping of two reclining female figures: Justice and Liberty.

He received the commission, and in his final drawing he changed Liberty to History. In Crawford's Justice and History, Justice, the figure to the right, is half reclining and heavily draped like a Roman matron at a banquet. She supports a large tome with the words "Justice, Law, Order" and rests her right elbow on the visible portion of a globe draped with the stars and stripes. Her right hand holds the scales of justice, which lie loosely on the edge of the base, their chains slack. The History figure has long flowing hair crowned with a laurel wreath. She holds an open scroll, with the top draped over a plinth, on which the words "History July 1776" are inscribed. Liberty Hat Liberty Hat Liberty Hat Among the Romans the cap of felt was the emblem of liberty. When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaved, and wore instead of his hair an undyed pileus. Servos ad pileum vocare is a summons to liberty. In late Republican Rome, the cap of freedmen served as a symbol of freedom from tyranny. The Liberty Cap as an emblem of liberty was used by the Sons of Liberty as early as 1765.

During the American Revolution, particularly in the early years, many of the soldiers who fought for the Patriot cause wore knitted stocking liberty caps of red, sometimes with the motto "Liberty" or "Liberty or Death" knitted into the band. In addition, there are references of the erection of Liberty Poles, topped with such a cap and flying a Liberty Flag prior to the American Revolution. This was a very popular and powerful symbol in those days. From Coin Link TM: "The Liberty Cap design by Joseph Wright was derived from what today is likely one of the most popular early medals, the Libertas Americana medal by Augustin DuprŽ. Sponsored by Benjamin Franklin, the Libertas Americana medal not only symbolized American victories in our Revolutionary War, but also represented the friendship between France and the new American nation. On the obverse of the cent Wright added a pole supporting a Phrygian cap, worn by freed slaves in Greece and Rome and adapted as a symbol of freedom by both America and France. He also softened and constrained Liberty’s wildly flowing locks, which had been criticized as being unduly savage or aboriginal in appearance. The reverse design was also simplified, though all of the design elements remained.

Wright did not see any of the cents made with his design (other than, perhaps, a sample piece) because he died nearly a week before any of the 1793 pieces were delivered". From Wikipedia: "The Phrygian cap is a soft, red, conical cap with the top pulled forward, worn in antiquity by the inhabitants of Phrygia, a region of central Anatolia. In artistic representations it signifies freedom and the pursuit of liberty — perhaps by a confusion with the pileus, the manumitted slave's felt cap of ancient Rome — and is sometimes called a liberty cap. In Antiquity, the Phrygian cap had two connotations: for the Greeks as showing a distinctive Eastern influence of non-Greek "barbarism" (in the classical sense) and among the Romans as a badge of liberty. The Phrygian cap identifies Trojans such as Paris in vase-paintings and sculpture, and it is worn by the syncretic Hellenistic and Roman saviour god Mithras and by the Anatolian god Attis. The twins Castor and Pollux wear a superficially similar round cap called the pileus".

Rip Van Winkle "Instead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red night-cap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes—all this was strange and incomprehensible. He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King George, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but even this was singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON". Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving (1783-1859) Simon Jester "Liberty Caps started appearing on Stilyagi and their girls; Simon Jester began wearing one between his horns. Bon Marche gave them away as premiums. Alvarez had painful talk with Warden in which Mort demanded to know if his fink boss felt that something should be done every time kids took up fad?

Had Alvarez gone out of his mind? I ran across Slim Lemke on Carver Causeway early May; he was wearing a Liberty Cap. He seemed pleased to see me and I thanked him for prompt payment (he had come in three days after Stu's trial and paid Sidris thirty Hong Kong, for gang) and bought him a cooler. While we were seated I asked why young people were wearing red hats? Why a hat? Hats were an earthworm custom, nyet? He hesitated, then said was sort of lodge, like Elks. I changed subject." -The Moon is Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. Liberty Poles Soon after the appearance of William Hogarth's 1763 print of John Wilkes holding a liberty pole topped with a liberty cap, American colonists embraced the symbols to represent their own views of political liberty. Liberty poles with various banners were raised in numerous towns to protest the Stamp Act of 1765 and to celebrate its repeal in 1766. In New York, British troops on at least four occasions destroyed the liberty pole erected by the Sons of Liberty, leading to a minor skirmish in January 1770.

Soon the liberty pole became the public symbol of American opposition to king and Parliament; suspected Tories were sometimes forced to kiss the liberty pole, and tax collectors were hung in effigy from them. In response to such events, British troops purposefully cut down Concord's liberty pole before the battle began there in April 1775. The enduring political importance of the symbol was reflected in the first design for the Great Seal of the United States in 1776, depicting the goddess of liberty holding a liberty pole and cap, and it also was represented on U.S. coins from 1793 until 1891. The icon is still found today on the state flag of New York and the state seals of New Jersey, North Carolina, and Arkansas. After the American Revolution, the raising of liberty poles continued as a form of protest against policies of the new national government. Liberty poles were raised by insurgents during the Whiskey Rebellion and Fries' Rebellion against federal taxes and by Republicans protesting the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. As early as 1792, depictions of the liberty pole and cap also became associated with the critique of slavery.

During the nineteenth century, the term "liberty pole" came to mean practically any flagpole, whether permanently erected in a community or raised to support particular issues. Bibliography Olson, Lester C. Emblems of American Community in the Revolutionary Era: A Study in Rhetorical Iconography. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1991. Schlesinger, Arthur M. "Liberty Tree: A Genealogy." New England Quarterly 25 (1952): 435–457. From the Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Magazine : "On this side of the Atlantic, the Liberty Cap, or what we called the French Liberty Cap, became a well-known symbol. During and after the French Revolution, the Liberty Cap, represented as being held aloft on the end of a pole, symbolized not only freedom, but also the fight for that freedom. In the flask arena, GI-85, GI-86, and GI-87 have the Liberty Cap, on the end of a pole, on one side. The other side (and it should come as no surprise to anyone) contains a bust of a man, surmounted by the word "Lafayette".

But to the common man, probably the representation of Columbia (or Liberty) that was encountered most often was that which appeared on our currency from 1793 until the 1830s. The version of Liberty used on the half-dime (1829 – 1837), dime (1809 – 1837), quarter (1815 – 1838), half dollar (1807 – 1839), quarter eagle (1808 – 1834), and half eagle (1807 – 1834), is very similar to the representation of Liberty that is on a majority of the historical flasks. It’s certainly quite likely that the images from the coins served as a model for the mold makers. The mold makers, realizing the popularity of the Liberty image, capitalized on this by making flasks that copied this idea. I follows then, that these flasks were made after 1807, and probably before 1840, when Liberty was highly modified on the United States coinage.

Raising the Liberty Pole 1770 Raising the Liberty Pole in New York City, 1770 pen and ink drawing by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere depicting one of six liberty poles to be alternately raised and later removed over ten years in confrontations among the Sons of Liberty and British troops stationed in the city prior to the American Revolutionary War. Liberty Tree The Liberty Tree (1646-1775) was a famous elm tree that stood in Boston, near Boston Common, in the days before the American Revolution. The tree was a rallying point for the growing resistance to the rule of England over the American colonies. In the years that followed, almost every American town had its own Liberty Tree -- a living symbol of popular support for individual liberty and resistance to tyranny. In some locales, a Liberty Pole rather than a tree served the same political purpose. The Magi from the East The Three Wise Men, named Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar. From a late 6th century mosaic at the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy.

Byzantine art usually depicts the Magi in Persian clothing which includes breeches, capes, and Phrygian caps. Mosaic, ca. 565. Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy - restored above in 18th century. Photo by Nina Aldin Thune. From the Architect of the Capitol : "A monumental statue for the top of the national Capitol appeared in Architect Thomas U. Walter's original drawing for the new cast-iron dome, which was authorized in 1855. Walter's drawing showed the outline of a statue representing Liberty; Crawford proposed an allegorical figure of 'Freedom triumphant in War and Peace.' After Secretary of War Jefferson Davis objected to the sculptor's intention to include a liberty cap, the symbol of freed slaves, Crawford replaced it with a crested Roman helmet". Original Model: From the Fashion Encyclopedia : "A hood-like hat with a pointed top, the Phrygian cap was introduced to ancient Greece around 500 B.C.E. from the nearby land of Phrygia, in what is now Turkey. The Phrygian people of the sixth and seventh centuries B.C.E.

had many influences on ancient Greek culture, among them a tight-fitting cap with a pointed top which angled to the front. The Phrygian cap is brimless, but may have flaps over or in front of the ears, and also sometimes has a long flap in the back to protect the neck. The caps were sometimes made of stiffened fabric or leather, which made it sit up on the head like a helmet, with the pointed top curving towards the front of the head. Other Phrygian caps were made of soft felt, with the point either flattened onto the crown of the cap, hung to the side, or stood up softly". Hail Columbia Hail Columbia Subscribe! Hail Columbia! Whether you think of her as an archetype, a land spirit, or an old goddess with a new name, Columbia is the name that some Pagans are starting to use for the personified ideals of liberty and freedom in America. She represents values that we hold most dear, and while we have often not lived up to the best possible implementation of them, we have made progress in gradually recognizing and respecting more and more freedoms for more and more people. Venerating Columbia calls us to continue to strive towards those highest ideals.

Personifying values as goddesses has a long history; Rome recognized Libertas , goddess of liberty, among others. Our own Statue of Liberty, actually entitled Liberty Enlightening the World, is directly modeled on classical depictions of Libertas. The Statue of Freedomfrom the Architect of the Capitol As people began to break away from older models of government and the modern nation-state developed, female personifications of countries emerged: the UK was represented as Brittannia , France as Marianne , and Switzerland as Helvetia . At the same time, we began to see the first depictions of Columbia as the personification of America in various forms. The Statue of Freedom atop the dome of the Capitol (pictured to the right) combines symbols of Liberty and Columbia: she wears a classical gown and a helmet topped with the distinctively American eagle. Unifying the two, atop the legislative heart of American government, is a statement that these ideals are the pinnacle of what it means to be American. Her Problematic Past The statue that I recognize as both Freedom and Columbia has an interesting past, a past that reminds us of the journey our country has made, sometimes in fits and starts, towards honoring its highest ideals in practice by recognizing and protecting more freedoms.

Columbia, after all, takes her name from Christopher Columbus, whose explorations enabled the European occupation of the Americas, with tremendous losses of life and freedom for Native Americans that would continue for centuries. The inclusion of “Native American” elements such as her fringed blanket and the eagle should represent rather than erase this problematic past. The eagle-topped helmet was actually a substitution; the sculptor’s original design had the figure wearing a pileus, or Liberty cap, which symbolized freedom because it had been worn by freed slaves in Rome. It became part of Libertas’ imagery, and can still be found in American iconography today, either held by Liberty or by itself, including in the seal of the Senate and on some state flags. When Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, reviewed the design, he insisted that the symbol of freed slaves was inappropriate for the United States. Although he prevailed on the sculptor to change the design, the issue of slavery led to war less than ten years later. Davis, and the Confederacy he led, were defeated. As a result, when slavery was abolished, some of the newly-free people were ones who worked to create and install the statue.

Perhaps the least obvious irony embodied in Columbia’s statue is the very fact that she is a female symbol of a country where even a hundred years ago women could not vote. She carries a sword and shield, the armament of an infantry soldier, when women in our armed forces are not allowed to be infantry members, even though they play an increasing role in direct combat. From her first appearances to the present day, Columbia, goddess of freedom and liberty as American values, has symbolized ideals that we have only imperfectly lived out. Her Hopeful Future This project invites Pagans to participate as citizens in helping the country progress towards greater freedom for all people, and especially the religious liberty that Pagans are working so hard to gain and defend. We go forward with our eyes open to the problems of our past, including those embodied in Columbia, and we take her as a symbol of how we are unwilling to return to that past; we work instead to create a better future for our country and ourselves. Columbia represents the goal to which we are dedicated; she encourages us to protect what has been won and beckons us onward to expand freedoms, including religious liberty in a peaceful and pluralistic society.

As we take steps in that journey, let us demonstrate that all acts of truth and justice are her rituals. Hail Columbia is proud to be an affiliate of the Pagan Newswire Collective , and organization dedicated to sharing and promoting primary-source reporting from within our interconnected Pagan communities. Archives LAROUCHE PLANET | Cult / The myth of "French v. American Revolutions" : the "Phrygian cap" Source: THE SECRETS KNOWN ONLY TO THE INNER ELITES (The CAMPAIGNER, Vol. 11, n�3-4, May-June 1978) Painting: "Libert� guidant le Peuple", by Eug�ne Delacroix. This was inspired by the insurrection of July 1830 in Paris, during which the last king of France Charles X was forced to abdicate and was replaced by the 'king of the French' Louis-Philippe. FACTS: The symbol of "Marianne" has very ancient origins. On her head, Marianne wears a special cap.

This cap was called a "Phrygian cap" or "Cap of Liberty".\\ It is important to note that Phrygia (in Minor Asia) was best known as a source of slaves, and it is believed that as slaves were freed, they would again be able to wear the Phrygian cap of their homeland. This soon became a symbol of emancipated slaves especially in Rome and Greece where it was worn by freed slaves. It showed that they were now Roman citizens and, therefore, were free people. Thus, the cap became a symbol of freedom or liberty. The Phrygian cap is a sort of cross between a close-fitting cap and a hood, sometimes more one than the other. It was worn by the ancient Greeks, the Scythians, the Gauls, the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons and the French revolutionaries in the late 1700's. Scythian cap was one of the most notable items of ancient Scythian costume. Its link with Phrygia was rather loose. Indeed, it might be related to the "pileus" (Latin) or "pilos" (Greek), a felt cap worn by sailors in Ancient Greece and later copied by Ancient Rome.

The pileus was especially associated with the "manumission of slaves" (act of a slave owner freeing their slaves) who wore it upon their liberation. It became emblematic of liberty and freedom from bondage. During the French Revolution in 1789, the figure of a woman dressed as a warrior wearing the "Cap of Liberty" came to symbolise the idea that freedom was worth fighting for. People adopted the idea of wearing a special hat - the "Cap of Liberty" - to indicate their support for revolutionary ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (Brotherhood). The revolutionary Cap of Liberty was red and was called the 'red cap'. On 20 june 1792, the king Louis XVI was forced to wear the liberty cap by the crowd who had invaded the palace of Tuileries. In 1793, wearing the Liberty cap was mandatory in the Assemblies of the sections of Paris. Under the Consulate, the capped Liberty was progressively replaced by a helmeted Minerva and the liberty caps were removed from all public monuments. Bonaparte was reported to hate the liberty cap.

The liberty cap is now widely used to cover the head of "Marianne", the feminine allegory of the Republic, whose bust statue ornates all the city halls of France.French painter David shows the battle between the Romans and the Sabines, where many on the Roman side are wearing the liberty cap. This is surely no coincidence, since he painted it in 1799. The cap disappeared from the seal of the Second Republic (1848�1852), but was reestablished as national symbol during the Third Republic (1870�1940). It is still in use as a strong symbol of freedom and republic, and additionnally on the logo of ex-RPR, the neo-gaullist party of J. Chirac. The poorly led 1798 Irish rebellion by the Society of United Irishmen adopted the Liberty cap as an emblem as well. Such revolutionary symbols carried over into the Latin American revolutions of the 1820s; as the western hemisphere struggled to gain independence from the European colonizers and the early unsatisfactory leaders. The Liberty cap and its symbolism moved south through Mexico and the Caribbean into Central and South America.

The American Revolution and the "Liberty cap": The iconographical use of the "Liberty cap" predates the French Revolution. It was already used as symbol of Liberty during the American Revolution. In 1675 the Sons of Liberty, a formal underground secret pre revolutionary organization of American Patriots from the 13 colonies, adopted the Liberty Pole and Cap as a symbol of liberty. The Liberty Pole is a pole similar to a flagpole which would fly a flag or be topped with a Phrygian Cap. During the American Revolution, many soldiers were known to wear red caps embroidered with �Liberty� or �Liberty or Death�. This style of cap was traditional in the North East (having been popular with the French Voyagers) and became immensely popular during the Revolution. In 1855 a model of an allegorical figure of Justice presented by the sculptor Thomas Crawford for a statue to top the US Capitol Building was depicted with a Liberty Cap. This was rejected by Jefferson Davis, who was then the US Secretary of War, because of the history of the cap being tied to freed slaves. His objections were based on his belief that American freedom was not transferable to slaves held in the United States.

The cap was thus redesigned to a helmet with an Iroquois Headdress. Jefferson Davis was later to become the President of the Confederate States. The Liberty Cap is depicted on the seal of the US Army, the seal of the US Senate, the state flags of Idaho, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, and on the state seals of Arkansas, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and West Virginia. Several coins and paper currencies have had illustrations of the Liberty Cap and Pole. NO WONDER LAROUCHE HATES THIS SYMBOL SINCE HE HATES FREEDOM! As Goebbels pithily observed a few months after Hitler's rise to power, "The year 1789 is hereby erased from history." (Note: 1789 is the year of the French Revolution.) Source: "The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism from Nietzsche to Postmodernism" By Richard Wolin, Published by Princeton University Press and copyrighted, � 2004.

Question: Because it was worn by recently freed slaves in Ancient Rome, what cap became the symbol of liberty?
Answer: Pileus